What Donald Trump Is... And Isn't

Yup. Probably only an egomaniac could survive the smear gauntlet the establishment will present to any non-establishment candidate. But yes, he is an egomaniac.

But while he is an egomaniac of a dangerous sort, he is not one of a catastrophic sort. It is egomaniacs who have tied their self-worth to an ideology that we really need to worry about: see Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot. Trump seems blessedly free of any ideology.

2) He'll say anything to win!

Yup. In his conflict with the Trump U. judge, Trump is looking for any angle that can discredit his "opponent." Trump is obsessed with "winning." If he loses the Trump U. lawsuit, he wants a handy explanation for why: "The Mexican-American judge was against me because I want to build a wall!"

That is probably BS. Trump is the paradigmatic bullshitter. He is not such much a liar as he is someone unconcerned with the truth: he says whatever he thinks he needs to say to advance his agenda.

3) He doesn't care about offending people!

Yup. If something he might say fits in with 1) and 2), he'll say it! And he'll keep saying it again and again, no matter whom it offends.

4) He's a racist!

Nope. We know that he has employed, worked with, and been friends with many non-white people. Many of those people have endorsed him. It is true that he has no hesitation about playing "identity politics," when he thinks that might help him win. But he also has no hesitation about rejecting "identity politics," when he thinks that might help him win.

In fact, we might say that Trump is far too much of an egomaniac to be a racist: racists are people with low self-esteem, who need to identify with something they see as being larger than themselves, e.g. their race, in order to feel important. Donald Trump already sees himself as far too important to need to identify with the "white race" to feel important! He certainly is willing to say things that white racists might identify with, if this will help him win. But he is equally willing to say he "loves Hispanics," if that will help him win.

In fact, a recent remark that supposedly is evidence of his racism, instead illustrates my point: when he pointed out "my African-American" in a rally, that demonstrates that for Trump, it is all about him, and race means nothing to him. He loves African-Americans... who are for him. He loves Hispanics... who are for him. And, unfortunately, although he is not himself a racist -- he is an egomaniac! --, he is willing to pander to white racists... just so long as they are for him.

Let me illustrate this further: I am confident that if could sit down with Trump today and convince him that his declaring that "The white race is a cancer invading the body of humanity" would guarantee him the presidency, he would be perfectly happy to Tweet that. He really doesn't have any opinions about race: his only opinion that has any importance is that Donald Trump must win.
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This is not the profile of my ideal presidential candidate! I've mentioned before how very, very many candidates I would like to have a chance to win this next election besides Trump. I would probably prefer you, whoever you are reading this, to be our next president rather than electing this bullshitting, offensive, egomaniac.

But faced with the prospect that either a bullshitting, offensive, egomaniac might be our next president, or that a candidate totally in the pocket of the military-industrial complex might be our next president... sorry, folks: I want to see fewer Yemenis, and Libyans, and Syrians, and Iraqis, dying or living miserable lives over the next four years. A bullshitting, offensive, egomaniac candidate has no particular reason to keep destroying the lives of those people. A candidate totally in the pocket of the military-industrial complex does.

Thus, I claim, we should vote for the awful candidate since the alternative is the really, really awful candidate.

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